An amphibian writer, translator, poltergeist,researcher... my doppelganger pretends to be a Professor of English, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Aapla Raj, the Truth behind Democracy and the Good Ole Bill

Aapla Raj Thackeray has played his cards like a seasoned Indian politician. He has courted arrest and hogged plenty of media attention and become a sort of hero and a martyr for the `masses'. From the times of the Mahatma, going to jail was a surefire way of becoming a hero and a martyr and thus winning sympathy. If a politician goes to jail, he is bound to win elections. Raj Thackeray is a pain in the old fat asses of the Congress, the BJP and last and the most of all, the Shiv Sena. He has hijacked all the tricks of Shiv Sena and robbed them of originality. Democracy is usually a veneer. Our Good Ole Bard Bill Shakespeare saw through the whole thing quite early. The justly famous Julius Caesar exposes how democracy works. Democracy is nothing more than mobocracy and the person who knows how to sway the sentiments of masses wins the day. Democracy is usually demagogueocracy. Raj Thackeray has plenty of support from Maharashtrians and Maharashtrians are usually looking for a scapegoat. They need someone to vent out their frustrations which are usually brought about due to their own limitations like laziness, boorishness and non-enterprising nature. The poor North Indian people were sitting ducks. Aapla Raj has not only eaten into Shiv Sena vote bank but also has emerged as the next `bhai' of Mumbai. The worst hit by this rise of New Hitler is the Old Hitler, his uncle. He has shown that what his uncle can do, he can do better. And what about the hapta rates now? Have they gone up after the arrest?

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Profile

Sachin C. Ketkar (b. 1972) is a bilingual writer,
translator, editor, blogger and researcher based in Baroda, Gujarat. His recent
publication is a collection of Marathi critical articles on contemporary
Marathi Poetry, globalization and translation studies titled Changlya Kavitevarchi Statutory Warning:
Samkaleen Marathi Kavita, Jagatikikarn ani Bhashantar (2016). His Marathi
collections of poems are Jarasandhachya
Blogvarche Kahi Ansh (2010) and Bhintishivaicya Khidkitun Dokavtana, (2004). His poetry in English
include Skin, Spam and Other Fake
Encounters: Selected Marathi Poems in translation, (2011), and A Dirge for the Dead Dog and Other
Incantations (2003). Several of his writings on translation are published
as (Trans) Migrating Words: Refractions
on Indian Translation Studies (2010).

He has extensively translated from Marathi and
Gujarati.Most of his translations of
contemporary Marathi poetry are collected in the anthology Live Update: An Anthology of Recent Marathi Poetry (2005) edited by
him. Along with numerous recent Gujarati writers, he has rendered the fifteenth
century Gujarati poet Narsinh Mehta into English for his doctoral research. He
has also translated the work of the well-known contemporary Gujarati writers
like Manilal Desai, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Bhupen Khakkar, Jayant Khatri, Mangal
Rathod, Jaydev Shukla, Rajesh Pandya, Rajendra Patel, Nazir Mansuri, Ajay
Sarvaiya and Mona Patrawala. He has also translated poems of Ted Hughes and
fiction by Jorge Luis Borges and Adam Thopre’s into Marathi. He won ‘Indian
Literature Poetry Translation Prize’, awarded by Indian Literature Journal,
Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi in 2000.

He holds a doctorate from VN South Gujarat
University, Surat and works as Professor in English, Faculty of Arts, The
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara. He is also Coordinator of
the department research project under UGC SAP DRS II on “Representing the
Region: Literary Discourses, Social Movements and Cultural Forms in Western
India, 1960-2000.